Eric Hutchinson (Lyons, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Deputy Speaker, I wish you and everybody in this place a happy New Year. Also, I say a big thankyou to all the people who have contributed their time and energy to supporting communities that were affected by fire and flood across Tasmania and around my electorate. I thank Geoff Harper and his team at the Tasmania Fire Service who worked on the ground and in emergency centres to provide constant updates to their website and through the media. I particularly thank the ABC for the valuable service they provide. To the interstate firies who came over and pitched in, I say thank you and I hope you can come next time for a visit. I thank Tasmania Police, Forestry Tasmania, and the Parks and Wildlife Service for ensuring visitors and locals were safe and for contacting and evacuating walkers and residents in danger. I would like to thank the State Emergency Service northern and southern regional managers, Mhairi Revie and Mark Nelson, and their teams who have worked around the clock to help those in need, as have TasNetworks and TasWater. I know their staff have put in long hours to get services reconnected to communities with significant damage to infrastructure.

I thank Liz Skirving and her team at Rural Business Tasmania for setting up a rural relief fund and those who have contributed. I thank the farmers who have offered feed and paddocks and to rebuild fences. I thank all the people in the emergency centres in the Meander Valley and the Glamorgan Spring Bay and Break O'Day municipalities, and the communities and individuals who have donated items for all the teams. I know the Rapid Relief Team was very welcome in the Meander Valley. I visited the communities in Fingal and St Marys on Saturday and it was— (Time expired)